No Love for the AFC West?

How many out there are sick and tired of the constant babble about the AFC West being the weakest division in football? Even this year, people consider the NFC West better. Better!! San Fran still has Alex Smith as QB, the rams are still the rams, the seahawks are in a new scheme and the cardinals lost their starting QB. Meanwhile the Raiders got better with Campbell, the chiefs are looking to get on an upswing, the broncos.... well i'm still confused about the broncos, and the chargers are one of the best AFC teams. C'mon people, let you voice be heard, put that east coast bias aside and show the West some love.

I don't agree that the NFC West is seen as better than the AFC West, especially with the retirement of Kurt Warner. But I do agree that that the Wests are seen as the weakest divisions, and I think there are good reasons for that.

Last year, the Wests were the only divisions with combined losing records, only 1 winning team and 2 teams with at least 5 losses. Over the last 3 years, the AFC West has only had 2 winning teams, the NFC West has only had 3.

If there is a feeling that the AFC West is weaker than the NFC West, it's probably based on the perception of the Broncos off-season. Everyone knows the Chargers are one of the best teams in football, but without the Broncos (8-8 each of the last 2 years), they are a 1 team division. The Chiefs and Raiders, although each had a good off-season, haven't been competitive in several years. The NFC West, while not necessarily better than last year, should be more competitive within the division. With the retirement of Kurt Warner and good off-seasons by the 49ers and Seahawks, any of the top 3 teams could win the division.

The AFC West is probably stronger, if for no other reason then Pete Carroll isn't coaching there. All semi-kidding aside (I don't trust Carroll on a pro level), the NFC West may be the weakest division in football. You never know until it all plays out put speculation is fun. Arizona is in big trouble without it's potential HOF QB. Wells is going to get his opprtunity now. Seattle is such a wild card here because it'll be a whole new culture and a lot of new players. The 49ers will probably be solid under Singletary, with a decent defense and an established running game. And the Rams, well, they're the Rams.

If there is a feeling that the AFC West is weaker than the NFC West, it's probably based on the perception of the Broncos off-season. Everyone knows the Chargers are one of the best teams in football, but without the Broncos (8-8 each of the last 2 years), they are a 1 team division. The Chiefs and Raiders, although each had a good off-season, haven't been competitive in several years. The NFC West, while not necessarily better than last year, should be more competitive within the division. With the retirement of Kurt Warner and good off-seasons by the 49ers and Seahawks, any of the top 3 teams could win the division.

Just because the seahawks, niners and cards could compete for the division title doesn't make the division competitive (on a league wide scale). It just means all the teams are about as weak as each other doesn't it? The AFC East, when the Jets, Dolphins and Bills were terrible, while the Patriots were one of the best teams in the league weren't considered a weak division.

For the record, the NFC West had the worst record of any division last year but a fairly wide margin. They had a combined record of 24-40, while no other division had fewer than 30 wins (AFC West was 2nd worst with 30-34).

I bet the AFC West will be worse this year than the NFC West (which are, and I'm certainly not East-Coast biased, the worst two divisions in the NFL). The Raiders will be better with Jason Campbell, but still not actually good; there's nothing about the Chiefs that makes me think they're going to turn it around (except that there's nowhere to go but up?); and the Broncos' QB corps is Kyle Orton, Brady Quinn, and Tim Tebow. That's just ridiculous.

Meanwhile, I think the 49ers will be legitimately good (although not as good as the Chargers, obviously); the Cardinals should be OK--not as good as they were last year, but probably better than the Broncos, Chiefs, or Raiders, right?; the Seahawks have got to be better, even with Pete Carroll, because their luck has been so awful recently; and admittedly, yes, the Rams will still be terrible. I think it will be close, but the AFC West ought to be able to overtake the NFC West as the league's worst division.